


intimate dinner

by Mishtique



Category: EXO (Band), Z.Tao (Musician)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, M/M, Reunions, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 08:51:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17200394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mishtique/pseuds/Mishtique
Summary: It's been years since the remaining part of EXO decided to disband and go their own ways when Suho decided it was time for a reunion. Tao doesn't know how this will end right and when he sees that Suho placed him to sit opposite of Kris, he already knows that it will be a very, very long night.





	intimate dinner

**Author's Note:**

> So uh, this could've turned out better but in the end I wasn't really feeling it anymore (that and I wanted to leave room for your imagination) Please leave comments (I accept critique but no hate)  
> also the title is an inside joke for me and Malingsu

[ intimate dinner ]

“Tao,  I got the post for you,” his manager said when he walked in. Tao was happy to see the man that made sure he got wherever he needed to be and did what he needed to do, although that is nowhere as much as it used to be. At age 31, his schedule wasn’t as filled as back then, back when he was an EXO member or when he went solo. Age doesn’t only impact your face and your body, but also the kind of jobs they want you for; rather than competing himself he got asked to coach those who wanted to compete.

It also brought good things. He had gotten over the crybaby phase quite fast but the public needed the time to be able to see it, to see that he was a capable man who didn’t cry about everything that upset him, but rather talk about it in a mature way. His way of talking in a mature way did come in different ways; at times he talked with his family or manager, but at other times when he felt that his fans should know this too, know the struggle he was going through and dealing with, he shared it on social media. This did cause some uproar with the general public and some worries for his fans but that too, when time passed, got better.

Sometimes, it made Tao laugh. SM gave him the power of time,  but they mostly used it to turn back an event. Little did the past version of him know that the thing he needed was the future rather than another past.

“Is there anything special, ge?” he asked his manager, who shook his head with every piece of paper he laid down on the table.

At times like these, when the sun shone through the window and landed on the man’s face, Tao could see how much more time demanded from the older man than it demanded from himself. When he went solo he became his own manager but he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it like that and appointed the man in front of him as his manager and he never regretted it. Once in a while, he would encounter someone who asked him why he still didn’t get a new one but Tao’s answer was easy: “I can’t just trade family.” Yet even though Tao said this, he knew there would be a time he would need to get a new manager, the man deserved to spend his old days in peace and managing an artist like Tao wasn’t exactly the definition of peace.

His manager was almost done with the surprisingly huge amount of post and Tao mentally noted down that he had to check his post more often when he suddenly let out a gasp and Tao was sure the man didn’t intend to let it out. Sighing to himself, Tao stood up to take the envelope from the older. It looked formal yet not on the formality level of another court case but rather an invitation. The envelope itself was decorated with soft pastel flowers, but his name was written down in hard black ink, the letters written with a handwriting that was familiar to him.

Suho.

A name whose owner he came to appreciate and love, who he disappointed, who he evaded but could never forget. The man had done so much for him that Tao knew he shouldn’t even dare to think of forgetting him. But as much as he knew it, he hadn’t kept in contact with the man after he departed from the group. The messages were few at the beginning but over time they turned into even less and Tao really didn’t know how he should act to the man, he didn’t know if he was allowed to start another conversation.

When he was done mentally preparing himself for what could be in there, he opened the envelope. His kind of luck made him get a papercut but the stinging in his thumb wasn’t the most important now, although he felt bad for staining the beautifully printed flowers with his blood. He let himself adore the flowers. Different kinds of black made the base of the design full of flowers and leaves with occasionally a flower painted with pink or red. When he’s done procrastinating under the name of admiring, he opens the letter.

“Dearest Tao,” he let the voice in his head read to himself, “today it is my pleasure to inform you of the dinner I’ve planned. This dinner will function as a reunion for all of us EXO members, whether they stayed until the end or departed from us before it. I would love to see you there and I’m sure the others would be as delighted as I would be. It takes place on Christmas Eve and the place will be announced later. Please let me know if you will attend, I know you still have my number. It never changed.”

A hand landed on his shoulder and he knew his manager read the letter over his shoulder.

“Are you planning on going, Tao?”

Tao patted the hand on his shoulder and went to pick up his phone from the table. “I will. I owe Suho that much and if I have to be honest, I won’t mind seeing them all again. It’s kind of lonely.”

Ever since he left, he has had quite a few flings. Men and woman from all over the world that could make his heart skip a beat, but it wouldn’t take long for Tao to realize that they weren’t the one. He’s now 31 and if you’re used to spending your teenage and young adult days with 11 others, it got lonely. And he needed love, he needed skinship and other interactions that made him feel loved. It was just a part of him and he knew he would never lose it.

His manager announces that it’s time for him to leave again, adding that whatever he had wanted to say wasn’t that important and could wait for tomorrow. Tao gave him a smile, grateful that the man could understand that he would probably spend the whole day thinking about the dinner and not be able to focus on anything else. Guess he really hadn’t changed that much after all.

He found his line app between a lot of apps that he used way more than the one he’s starting now. People who were close enough to him to be on his phone used to ask why he hadn’t deleted it, but Tao never really gave an answer. The fact that he still had that app, a way to communicate with his old friends, gave him a safe feeling. You never know for what kind of emergency would cause them to message him and god knows how it would be if he didn’t have that app and totally miss the message.

It doesn’t take long to find Suho in his contact list, the leader was one of the members he had contacted for the longest. When he opened the conversation, he was hit by all the feelings the old conversation gave him. Once he could get over those, he started typing.

He wasn’t one to think long about messages and the one for Suho was quite easy to formulate, even though there was a guilty feeling nagging in his mind for never thanking Suho properly for everything he did.

“ _Suho-hyung,_

_Thank you. Thank you for not only the invitation but also for everything you ever did for me. Please let me thank you properly at the dinner. Please let me know where it will be and at what time and I will be there._

_Tao_ ”

Even though his reply felt a bit too formal to be sent over a line message, he felt it was needed as the letter was just as formal. When the reply would come and be less formal, he would tone it down too. He caught himself thinking about how the other members could possibly be replying and when Tao noticed his thoughts were turning negative, he scolded himself. He wasn´t some teenager anymore whose emotions would be thrown into a storm whenever something unexpected happened. He had to get his shit together.

Although that was easier said than done.

Just like everything in life.

However, the ping of his phone got his attention and all the negative emotions were stuffed away again. His notification preview told him it was from Suho and when he unlocked his phone he felt himself getting nervous, yet in a good way.

Suho-hyung:

_That’s so good to hear [row of pink hearts]_

Well. That was a good reply.

Just not in the way Tao expected it to be.

It seems like Suho became better with phones over the years and Tao couldn’t help himself from chuckling. Took him quite a while.

He hesitated when typing the reply, not sure what the proper reply would be. He knew he could drop the formality seeing the, very enthusiastic, use of emojis by Suho. But still. It was hard.

But before he had the change to reply to another message came in from Suho.

Suho-hyung:

_I actually got the details already for the dinner place [confetti emoji]_

_Since your reply took the longest for some reason [thinking emoji] [eyes]_

Me:

_Ah sorry about that_

_Might’ve forgotten to check my mailbox for a while_

Suho-hyung:

_I knew I shouldn’t have listened to Minseok_

_He insisted on letters_

_Even though we all know messages through phones get read way earlier_

_[sighing emoji]_

Me:

_Ah well hyung, at least I still got it_

Tao hesitated for a second and added a second message.

_Will everyone be attending?_

Suho-hyung:

_If there won’t be any sudden changes, then yes_

_Why? [eyes] [smirking]_

Me:

_Hyung_

_You know exactly why [ugh emoji]_

Suho-hyung:

_Haha, yes, yes_

_sorry TaoTao_

Tao felt like everything that had been needed to say was said and closed his line app. So Suho thought the situation with Kris was like a joke. He probably expected them to have fixed their relationship already, or that they at least had gotten over it. Tao might’ve gotten over it, in some ways, but he had no idea what the older thought about him nor have they really interacted in any way since EXO.

Oh, who was he kidding?

Their relationship is still shit.

♥

The day the news came that EXO disbanded was a quite normal day. Tao had a few schedules but nothing special and ended up being on the internet the moment the bomb dropped and made the internet go crazy. Articles had never been released so fast before and it soon became the most trending topic on several different social media sites.

Tao knew that saying something about this situation might be risky but he felt like it would be rude to not say something. Then again, sending the members a direct message would be out of place too since he hadn’t really kept in contact with any of them, with the exception from Luhan. After a lot of thinking, a lot of scrolling through social media and a shot call to his manager to get permission, he decided to go with twitter and a separate post on his weibo page.  His message would be short yet it would be obvious to everyone what was mean.

_Good luck in the future, everyone._

He felt quite good after posting it and the feeling got better when he saw that the members with a twitter account liked his post and when Luhan quoted is weibo post with some nice words. Guess they weren’t alone just yet.

He ignored the stupid feeling in his chest when he saw that Kris didn’t do anything on his twitter or weibo about the situation and acted like it didn’t hurt.

But the thing was that it did hurt.

And he couldn’t make it stop.

♥

Getting dressed up for the reunion dinner felt the same way getting dressed up for his first date did. He kept thinking about expectations he had, both good and bad, and nerves soon struck him, the stupid kind of nerves that made you go to the toilet for almost nothing.

Luckily none of the nerves were caused by his attire. Tao snorted when that thought entered his mind, he wished it were only the nerves because of his clothes. No, it was the nerves to face those who he had shared a dream with. Who he had cried together with, who he had shed blood and sweat with and most of all they are the people who were his family.

And maybe still are.

He just hasn’t directly contacted in years and the indirect contact they had was nowhere near enough to say that they kept up their “family”.

He knows it will be awkward. It will be awkward because they were close, very close yet at the same time they are now considered strangers. It will be strange with them like they’re strangers, because at one point they family, and you don’t treat family like strangers. Yet at the same time, it would be awkward to thread them like family because Tao just doesn’t know if the others still consider them family. Hell, he doesn’t even know if the members who stayed till the end still consider each other family.

Sure, he kept up with them, and sure, he saw that some of them still do projects with each other, but it’s different when you’re older and not in dorms together anymore.

Tao just doesn’t know what to expect and how to act.

And he never felt so insecure.

At variety shows he knows what to do and how to act – it’s about being funny. When he acts in movies and dramas he knows how to act – as long as he follows the script, executes the right moves and gives of the emotions it will be okay. At concerts he knows what to do – he got to shower his fans with love and perform like he never wants to do anything else.

But no training, no script and especially not a “10-minute help video on reunion videos” is going to help him for this dinner.

So Tao decides to just let it all happen.

 

What he did not want to happen, however, was the situation he was currently facing.

Paparazzi.

Tons of them.

And he wasn’t exaggerating. How he wished he was.

 

_“Huang ZiTao!”_

_“Why are you so late?”_

_“Did they force you to come?”_

_“Did you want to be here?”_

_“How is your relationship with the members?”_

_“Did you keep in contact with them after you left?”_

_“Do you still hate Kris Wu?”_

_“Did Luhan talk you into coming?”_

**“AND NOW IT’S ENOUGH”**

Tao winced at the loud voice of his bodyguard but he is thankful for the man’s words as he didn’t know for how long he could hold himself back. Paparazzi are the worst. Sure, they have to sell their stories so it’s understandable that they have to far to get the good stuff but not respecting people by giving them space and accept it if they don’t reply really aren’t near their fortes. He felt a headache coming up but shakes it off, not wanting to let his dinner later get ruined because he had to get through some paparazzi.

His bodyguard starts talking to his mic, probably talking to the other bodyguards Suho hired for the place, and he sees how a path is made. He took a deep breath and walked further again. The automatic doors opened a bit slow which made him almost bump into them but he tries to pull it off as if nothing happened. Someone probably noticed but it’s better to act like nothing happened to make sure he won’t be turned into another gif again. Which was quite hard seeing that his fans like to turn him into any random gif.

One of the bodyguards greeted him and took his coat. Tao took another deep breath and tried to let go of the nerves. It’s time for the real thing. 

Another automatic door opened and before Tao could take a good look at the place he’s engulfed in a pair of arms. It took him a second to understand what’s going on but when he noticed it was Suho he relaxed and slowly, and somewhat unsurely, hugged the older back. He wasn’t expecting a greeting this warm, but at least it helped him in his mental debate earlier about whether to act like a stranger or as if they were still family like before. He could definitely still act like family.

At least with Suho. The others were still unknown waters that he would have to carefully examine. Then again, he should probably go with the flow to make sure it would stay comfortable.

The feeling of being welcomed with (literal) open arms stays for a few more seconds and then they let each other go and Tao feels like he’s pulled back into reality again. He could still hear the reporters’ voices vaguely and when he turned around he saw why there aren’t any flashes going off anymore.

The doors had been closed and black screens have been placed in front of them, ensuring the paparazzi no entry. He turned back again and saw Suho smiling again.

“Sorry for the trouble you had to go through while entering this place. One of the hotel employees felt like chasing his 5 minutes of fame and decided to tell the paparazzi about our meaning. I had my manager put it on his name rather than mine but I guess he is more known than I thought and the employees put one and one together when they saw that the reservation was for 12,” he said and with a chuckle he added, “Next time I will just make up a name. But good, they made up by closing off the restaurant for anyone that didn’t reserve before the news was out.”

Tao just laughed along and nodded, following Suho when he told him that the others were waiting for him. He didn’t know if they were really happy to see him or just waiting for the last one so they could start eating but he would just have to see. He mentally scolded himself for such negative thoughts over very nice people but his insecurity was taking over his thoughts.

Suho led him to a big room with only one, long table, obviously theirs. The interior screamed money, luxury and a very, very big price tag for a dinner for 12. Tao just hoped Suho would allow them to go Dutch or else Suhos bank account would have to suffer a very big loss.

 Once he was done admiring the interior he looked at the others and noticed they were all looking at him. He had probably taken too long looking at everything that the others had taken their time to notice him and now when he met some eyes, he was also greeted with small, teasing grins. Next to the smiles that made him feel at home, there was one that painfully stood out and made him realize not everything was like it was before again. Kris’ face held no emotion and when he took in more about Kris he also noticed there was only one unused place left.

Just one. In front of Kris.

Oh, how fun.

Suho told him to take the seat next to him and he did, although somewhat clumsily and slightly shaking, almost crumbling under the gazes.

Huge concerts? No problem. Big competitions? With pleasure. Popular national shows? Of course! Dinner with your ex-members and your old crush? Or current crush? Undecided whether he’s still a crush not? Definitely not something he’s good at nor will he ever be.

Luhan was sitting on the other side of the table, in front of Sehun who sat on his other side, but Tao didn’t know if it would be appropriate or not to start a conversation with him. He himself used to get irritated when close friends would start their conversations about things only they know and it was impossible to join it, so he just smiled to him and when he got a smile back from Luhan he knew it would be okay.

There was an uncomfortable air, where Tao himself didn´t know whether to ask everyone how they were or just conversate with the people next to him. That atmosphere was slightly broken when a waiter came to ask what he wanted to drink and once he had replied people went back to the conversations he assumed they were having before he came in.

He didn´t know if he should start asking Sehun about how he was doing because he was already asking Luhan something and felt absolutely lost. Looking for other options, he looked up and right in the eyes of Kris. Completely flustered for making contact he blushed, and immediately crossed that option off.

This is going to be a very, very long dinner.

Suho apparently noticed his mood so once he was done whispering in Lay´s ear, who sat next to him, he turned to Tao.

“How is it going with your trainees? I saw you sent some of them to survival shows, planning on testing the waters?”

Tao swallowed his food and nodded. “They haven’t had a lot of exposure yet and since I’m not doing any groups any time soon, they have to be popular on their own. I’m not the biggest fan of sending young trainees to survival shows but the management suggested it and after being a trainer on quite a few of them I decided we could try.”

Suho had a thoughtful look on his face before speaking again. “Is there anything I could possibly help with?”

It was sweet to see that someone like Suho still cared enough to offer help, but really he shouldn’t have expected anything else. He was always offering himself in order to make others prosper. But before he could reject it himself a voice next to him speaks up.

“Tao, is hyung offering help already?: 

He was shocked the younger spoke to him, afraid Sehun still had some problems with him considering their good relationship and the fact that he didn’t personally tell Sehun he was leaving, but seeing that he freely joined Sehun apparently didn’t.

He turned back to Sehun and laughed, not only because of the comment but also because he was genuinely happy to see Sehun speaking to him. “Yes, he didn’t change at all, did he?”

Once the words left his tongue he was afraid it would bring back the awkward atmosphere but apparently the younger didn’t mind him acknowledging the way it all went. Sehun probably accepted it long ago.

Maybe he should too.

No, wait. That’s wrong. He accepted and acknowledged it a long time ago. He knew he should have done some things differently, but it went as it went and he really can’t change anything about that. Maybe that’s what he should accept.

“No he didn’t at all,” Sehun replied, “He’s still putting himself to the background, always helping the others, forgetting that he himself has the full right to shine too. But it’s sweet, it shows how much he cares about us.”

Us. Sehun still sees them as a family. He can practically feel himself gaining more confidence.

The conversation went on for a bit about their schedules, new hobbies or countries they went to on holidays. From time to time Lay, Chen or Luhan chipped in but the man in front of him stayed painfully silent when the conversation went into Tao’s direction.

Sure, Kris talked to Luhan, he knew they were still close, and Kris politely responded when others asked him anything or talked to him but once the topic was related to Tao he stayed silent, choosing to eat.

Tao decided to stop thinking about it as he wouldn’t be able to change anything and went back to the conversation Sehun was having with Jongin and Kyungsoo, about dating. Once there was a pause he decided to chip in, feeling comfortable enough with Sehun to ask him about it.

“So Sehun, are you dating anyone?”

“Are you being serious there, Tao?” Sehun reacted mildly offended and with that reply, Tao assumed it’s because he should already know. That or something bad happened.

“Yes of course, would I ask if I wasn’t?”

“Well, considering you stayed close with Luhan I assumed you knew..”

Tao, who swallowed another gulp of wine and had consumed already quite some wine, had gotten a bit slow and didn’t get the hint that fast. But once he asked what Luhan had to do with Sehuns love life he knew he really was dumb.

Of course, Luhan had to do something with Sehuns love life. That idiot was probably Sehuns love of his life.

He threw Sehun a look, showing that he finally got it and left the conversation to focus on Luhan, who was busy with Kris and Jongdae. Tao thanked his parents for giving him such long legs and once he was sure what legs were Luhans he kicked them.

Kris suddenly had a face full of pain, and Tao knew he fucked up.

He should’ve known Luhans legs weren’t long enough to come so close to his. Gosh, how he wished the ground would swallow him right then and there.

“Who thought it was fun to kick me?!”

Tao decided that keeping his eyes low would probably avoid suspicion, but unknown to him it only aroused suspicion and Baekhyun, who was still mentally fast even though he consumed a lot of alcohol already, was close to crying of laughter.

He assumed Kris let it go when he heard the previous conversations going on again and let out a sigh, looking up only to be faced by Kris looking at him. They made eye contact and Tao could practically feel his ears catching fire.

Kris rolled his eyes and drank a bit more of his beer. “You could’ve just asked for my attention, you know?”

He knew his face must be fully on fire by now but the alcohol gave him enough confidence to speak back. “Who said I was asking for your attention?”

Sehun let out a ‘tell them boy’ from next to him and Kris raised an eyebrow. “Then why would you kick me?”

Tao sighed and rolled his eyes, this man sure had a lot of confidence. “I thought your legs were Luhans, I had to punish him for telling everyone about a relationship from me!” He knew the last part came out particularly whining, but Tao decided it really didn’t matter anymore.

“Luhan is in a relationship?!”

Well. Seems like he wasn’t the only one that didn’t know. Luhan laughed a bit but stayed silent, but Kris (nor Tao) would let that happen.

“How could you not tell me, ge?! Weren’t we supposed to be close or something?”

Luhan gave Kris a look, before putting another piece of meat in his mouth. “I thought you still had a stick in your ass about EXO because you never talked about them so I thought it was better to not talk about it.”

Kris slapped Luhans arm (who let out some offended grumbles) and finished his glass of beer. He grumbled some more about his leg hurting and then focussed on Tao again, who could feel his confidence brought by the alcohol disappear all at once but luckily ( ~~to his disappointment~~ ) Kris didn’t say much more.

The rest of the dinner flew by and before he knew it the ice cream was finished too and the first started to leave. Kyunsoo and Minseok scolded him and told him to contact them more after this, giving their updated numbers, and when they left they took Jongin and Jongdae with them. Baekhyun didn’t leave much later, with a very drunken Chanyeol around him, telling him that he was done with his boyfriend being drunk and that the taller would have to sleep on the couch tonight. Tao just laughed and told Baekhyun he would contact him again after this, only patting Chanyeols back when he got hugged as goodbye by the drunk one.

Tao and the others who were left sat down for another drink before collectively deciding that it was time to go home.

Once outside, he noticed the cold and the snowflakes of snow. It would be a white Christmas this year. Luhan hugged him tightly, obviously enough alcohol in his system and then went back to bothering Sehun, who after saying bye to him still had to ask Suho something. It didn’t take long for Suho to leave with Lay, and it’s only then that Tao was left with Kris, who apparently had no reason to go home early.

Well.

That’s awkward.

He didn’t know if it would be appropriate to immediately leave and starting a conversation with Kris is not something he could easily do, so he took out the pack of cigarettes from his jacket’s pocket. Not wanting to be rude, he held it in front of Kris who accepted it with a thanks.  

It gave him a satisfied feeling even though he knew he should stop this habit. It gave him a boost yet at the same time gave him peace, and so they spent the entire life of the cigarette next to each other in silence. They dropped their burning leftovers to the ground but before Tao could step on his to put it out another foot was already on it.

Surprised, he looked up at Kris. “If you think I will just let you leave right now Tao, you’re wrong. We really need to talk.”

He knew Kris was right. They’re older now and their wounds have long recovered. It’s time.

“Let’s go then.”

They both had enough to drink and decided to just call a cab, which thankfully didn’t take more than five minutes to arrive. Since Kris’ hotel was closer, they went to his. The car drive was silent, but Tao felt like it wasn’t unwanted. He knew they would be talking more than enough later tonight and he needed this silence to prepare himself for a bit.

♥

“Do you want something to drink?” Kris asked him when they walked into the kitchen. Tao felt quite sobered up again so he accepted it, not wanting to get drunk but he knew Kris probably had some great wines and Tao would never pass by some good wine.

He sat down on one of the metal stools and leaned forward onto the table, admiring the interior of the suite. A glass of wine appeared in front of him, together with Kris sitting on the opposite side of the table. Once they both took a sip, Tao decided to break the peace.

“I understand why you left. Or, better said, now I do,” he said, as he didn’t really know where to start but revealing his own feelings first felt like a good idea, “I back then was mostly mad, as you might know because of that one interview. I felt abandoned, betrayed but when I look at it now I see that I was incredibly selfish. I was only thinking about myself. I was the abandoned one, the betrayed one and the one suffering because you left. Or at least, I thought so back then.

What I didn’t think about back then was the suffering you went through to get to the decision, all the thinking you must have done, which was incredibly stupid because you told me you didn’t want it the way SM was doing it. You actually told me yet I still reacted that way.

After that, I felt lonely but work had to keep going and I ended up getting more and more injured. I was still young and quite bad at decision making, so at the end, my decision was mostly my parents’ and the way it ended up going is something I still regret.

I went solo after that and had a lot of time to think, especially once more years went by and I could totally understand you, but I was scared to get in contact again. I knew you were in contact with Luhan but I didn’t ask him about you, afraid it would come of in the wrong way and now we’re here and I just wished I had gathered courage earlier, who knows what we could’ve been.”

It was quite a monologue, he knew, and he felt quite insecure under Kris’ heavy gave, who took a sip of his glass of beer from time to time and hadn’t shown much reaction yet. He let a second of silence fall but he knows he hasn’t said one important thing yet.

“And I’m so, so sorry.”

He felt his eyes burn, and as much as he grew up and was nowhere near the crybaby from the past, he knew he would end up crying at one point.

There was another second of silence and a sole tear escaped from his eye, over his cheek and fell on the table but the next tear wouldn’t come so far. Two big, warm hands held his cheeks and Kris’ face was a whole lot closer than the last time he dared to look up. His ears flushed red and his heart might’ve gone a bit crazy.

If he ever said that he was over Kris, he lied.

They might’ve not had any contact the past few years and they might’ve changed a lot but it’s still Kris that makes his heart beat. Love, if he could call it that, was a strange thing.

Kris wiped away his tears and sat down again to take another sip of his drink.

“I won’t lie and say I wasn’t hurt. I was. A lot. I was mad because I thought you were the one that actually understood me and would understand why I left. I hoped we could stay in contact and maybe more because you weren’t just a junior to me and I knew I wasn’t just your senior in a group.”

They stayed silent for a bit, making eye contact from time to time only to look away, flushed as if they were teenagers falling in love.

The only difference is that they aren’t teenagers anymore. Yet they still can have what they would have liked to have.

“We could try though,” Kris suddenly said and Tao had to double check if he heard right.

“Excuse me?”

“We can try again. We’ve both forgiven each other and it’s obvious the fire is still there, so what do you say?” Kris said as if it was the most normal thing to say.

Tao, quite in shock, started speaking only to end up stuttering. He had to take another deep breath in order to calm himself down.

“I would love to.” 

♥

They ended up going on dates regularly, first in secret for dinners in hotels and once it got more comfortable, they shifted to restaurants trusted by other idols. It took 5 months before they appeared together in public for the first time and when, another 7 months later, Suho had organized a dinner again on Christmas Eve, they attended as a couple.

 

(A few months later:

“Say, why were you so cold to me during that dinner if you still liked me?” Tao asked between bites of ice cream.

“I needed you to admit it first,” Kris replied, “I needed to make sure I was reading everything right.”

Tao pouted slightly, “I wasn’t obvious though.”

A chuckle left Kris’ lips and he looked at his boyfriend with loving eyes. “No one would flush that red if he kicked a man that wasn’t at least somewhat important to him.” )

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading ♥  
> Late merry christmas and a happy change of year ♥


End file.
